Author Archives: Reviva

Who’s a scaredy-cat?

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Reviva

  I need to remind myself every day to BE BOLD. From: ‘Am I a lion that eats people?’  2004 ELRU publication about HIV/Aids photographs by Enver Essop with painted elements by Reviva Schermbrucker

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A home is a house

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Reviva

The houses we sequentially lived in and rented in my under-teens were all in Yeoville; their street names rhyme with an internal GPS, coordinates that hit solid bodies in my galaxy, sounding off resonating booms and squeaks through space and … Continue reading →

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Giving children what they say they want

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Reviva

In a debate where children, publishers, librarians and writers sat in a circle to discuss what it is we should be writing/publishing for children, I found myself the lone voice against writers taking too much note about what children had … Continue reading →

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Brother and sister haircuts

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Reviva

Bredasdorp, right next door to Elim Butchery. Price? R25 each.

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Paddas, Pofaddertjies and Puddles

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Reviva

photo: Sue Kramer When the bridge flooded between Arniston and Bredasdorp everybody drove out to have a look. Sheets of water lay on the dry scrubby renosterveld on all sides creating unlikely vistas of endless lakes. Puffadders (dead) lay strewn … Continue reading →

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Where one finds inspiration

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Reviva

In the compost heap of the imagination, a novel is slowly emerging…

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Anybody out there who sailed on the S.S. Florence Brierley?

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Reviva

  S.S. Florence Brierley arriving in Cape Town 1950                   S.T. Florence Brierley at sea 1951   These two darling oil paintings, the artist of which is only identified by the name “Leo”, are now ours. Internet gives us a few … Continue reading →

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Dung beetle tale

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Reviva

It’s not often that real live models insist on visiting people visualising them for the sake of a book but that is what happened when I was busy illustrating a story about a dung beetle using the usual 2D source … Continue reading →

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Mavis Mogotsi

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Reviva

In a week where there was one big death, there was another that did not get a trillionth of the attention but was big for us. Mavis Mogotsi, grandmother to Charlie Tankie Mogotsi  and mother to Christine Mogotsi, was a … Continue reading →

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My Madiba

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Reviva

Everybody has a version of Madiba that is their own. This is mine. Hamba Kahle, Tata from The Jam Tin and the Teacup, Songololo Books 2002

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